Thought about the holidays yet?

Every year Austin is host to a number of awesome holiday shopping venues and events. The WonderCraft will be at a few, so I thought I share a little list of what we're signed for and what else is out there.

First on the calendar is early November, The Hill Country Arts and Crafts Fair. Saturday November 7 from 9am-4pm and Sunday November 8 from 11am-4pm and located at Sun City Texas Social Center Ballroom at 2 Texas Drive, its a free event too. Get on out shopping early and see Beth H out there with her Snuggle Herd!


The following week we'll be out with Stella at EAST. The East Austin Studio Tour has become an annual event where galleries and studios all over the east side of Austin open their doors and host events of all sorts. We are going to be across from The Creative Side Jewelry Academy of Austin at 628 Allen Street with our big Airstream Stella, she'll be a boutique, a gallery, and a crafty space. Come by and create something with us!

Then starts the famous Blue Genie Art Bazaar going from December 2-24th! At the Monarch Evens Center.

Next up December 5th and 6th there are two great shows going on, one is hosted by the Wheatesville Co-Op and goes from 10am-5pm. The other is Presented By EtsyAustin and is called Craft Riot! - A handmade revolution in shopping. This year we have the luck to be hosted by the owner of Wines.com at his headquarters near the intersection of Springdale Rd and 290, at 5005 Commercial Park Dr. We're also bringing Stella out to this one to house the photo booth with Santa as well as some of our wares. Its happening Saturday Dec 5th from 10am-8pm and Sunday Dec 6th 11am-7pm, $3 entry includes a glass of wine! (or bottled water) Also on hand will be yummy eats and a ton of our EtsyAustin friends.

After that starts the ever famous Armadillo Christmas Bazaar going from December 11-24th at the Austin Convention Center.

Then comes a fantastic show the Cherrywood Art Fair, Saturday Dec. 12, 10am-6pm and Sunday Dec. 13, 12-6pm at Maplewood Elementary. This is another one that Stella is coming out for, we'll be hosting a DIY gift wrap station and of course she'll have the boutique interior set up for selling.

Finally finishing the season with the Keep Austin Bizarre, at Fiesta Gardens December 18-21st, we're not vending but we'll be out shopping by then!

Hope your holidays are as handmade as ours!

Getting Crafty with toilet paper tubes

Hi Beth A here, I thought I'd do a How-to posting for my latest favorite item to keep, toilet paper tubes! I've been keeping these things for months now, knowing I wanted to make something out of them. The first thing I made was some cute necklaces for kids to make-n-take at a "green" fair back in the spring, but I'd always thought I could make some type of window screen with cut pieces. So when I was catching up on my reading of the Craft blog I saw this post about paper tube wall art, I'll admit that I didn't actually read the instructions, but I knew that I could modify the project to become my window screen. So here is how I did it:

Mine uses only 5 toilet paper tubes.


Then I picked out a paper to cover the inside and outside of the tube (white and red), cut the paper into quarters (4.25 x 5.5 inches).
I then put the cut paper into a box to spray mount them, that way the spray doesn't get on the floor. I used 3M Super 77, but a regular spray mount or even rubber cement would probably work fine.
Then roll the paper over the tube on the outside and roll it and tuck into the inside. After they are all covered with paper, cut them with regular crafts scissors into about 1/4" slices (you should get between 9-10 slices per tube) You can cut them thinner or thicker as you like. When you cut the strips they'll get a little bent, into a leaf shape.
I then arranged them in the design pattern that I liked, it took some fussing, but I wanted something asymmetrical while still somewhat rectangular to fit into my window.
I then glued each petal together with regular school glue, I tried a glue stick first but it didn't work. I did not clothes-pin them, but you may want to depending on the intricacy of your design. I glued them one at a time keeping the design intact while lifting one slice up and gluing it.

Wah-LA! You've got to attach some string to the top, and hang it wherever needs a little inspiration.

Terrariums!

Beth A here, I had a Terrariums class a few weeks ago, and I've got another one coming up, so here are some pics to get you excited. The class is super fun and I left this little guy at Austin Handmade to keep Jason company!

You get to make a closed terrarium, as well as have the option to make an open container one too!

Next class is Tuesday Sept. 29 at 6:30pm Sign up! My awesome student Julia Riley, brought an adorable little squirrel to fit inside her terrarium.

Her three finished terrariums, super cute!Sign up!